State of the City Address
The Decade of San Antonio: A Big City transforming into a Great City

Continued from page 2

President Obama has made clear that the defense our digital networks is the new frontier of warfare in defense of our nation. And San Antonio has tremendous assets that set it apart from every other single region in the country. With the 24th air force, with the NSA Texas logic center, with UTSA cyber institute, with Our Lady of the Lake investment and academic programs, and with the terrific energy that is being spearheaded by the Chamber of Commerce to create a cyber plan that will mean more than the $8 billion that cyber already contributes to the local economy in 2010. You guys are to be commended on that, and that has terrific promise for our future.

And every once in a while, in a generation, there comes a fundamental economic shift that creates a window of opportunity for those cities that are bold enough, that are innovative enough, that have the collective vision to take advantage of the moment.

Thirty years ago, as Mayor Cisneros began his tenure, that opportunity was in hardware and software and biotechnology, and today that opportunity is in the green economy and sustainability. And San Antonio can and will be a leader in embracing sustainability, but not only for the sake of doing it, and in addition to the environmental benefits that it will provide, we will embrace it because it will mean jobs for our city, putting people to work. Just the other day we stood at the opening of the Mission Verde center, capitalizing on the great work that mayor Hardberger did and the vision that he set out and the hard work of Larry Zinn and others. The Mission Verde center will be a place in the middle of the west side of San Antonio, a collaboration among the city, the Alamo Colleges, Texas A&M and others to train folks for the green jobs of the future, to take folks who oftentimes believe that they're caught between making a lot less money, taking a job that they think they're overqualified for, or not being able to get a good job, blue collar jobs, blue collar workers who, many of whom may not have a college degree but may have a G.E.D. or graduated from high school, who have the ability to do great work for our community, to install solar panels, to do weatherization, to create energy-efficient homes, to xeriscape, to do all of those jobs that we call green jobs. This center is one of a kind in the nation and it's connecting the theory to the reality.

The idea of a green economy is the practice of putting people to work to provide for their families, and I expect great things from it in the future. And San Antonio has had, and I have seen in just the seven months that I have been in office, terrific interest from folks, companies in the United States and companies abroad to come here and invest in solar manufacturing plants, wind turbine plants, and San Antonio has created a buzz that is catching the attention of people around the world as a great place to do business and a great place to invest in terms of the green economy, but we will do more. We will do what we need to do to invest in these jobs. We will train the folks we need to train to provide a steady workforce to take them on. We'll work with Alamo Colleges and others to ensure that we have both the business climate we need to succeed and the pool of workers that it takes to do so.

The cities of the 21st Century that succeed the most will also be those cities that reach out to our growing world, the cities that forge relationships beyond the borders of our nation. I mentioned earlier that the Youth Orchestra of San Antonio is going to be in Shanghai at the World Expo, and we're very proud of another San Antonian, Jose Villarreal, who is heading up an effort to put on the American Pavilion at the World Expo. And San Antonio next May will have “San Antonio Day” in Shanghai to demonstrate to the business community there in China and throughout the world what San Antonio has to offer. We're also closer to home, keeping a great relationship with Mexico and Latin America. I don't have to tell many folks in the room that 2010 is a very special year in Mexican history and for San Antonio's role in that history, the 200 years since the independence of Mexico from Spain and 100 years since the Mexican Revolution. And at every step of the way the relationship between San Antonio and Mexico has provided tremendous economic investment and opportunity for our city, and we will ensure that that continues through our efforts to put on events throughout 2010, through our efforts to support business development in Mexico and throughout Latin America, and through forging closer relationships through the many folks who have come to the United States recently who have a lot to offer our city.

I know that many times when people think of an international city, they don't necessarily think of San Antonio. In fact, I remember just a few years ago sitting in an office in a high-rise in San Francisco and talking to someone and telling them that I was from San Antonio, and him asking me if I owned any farmland or ranchland. I have seen, and I know that it's clear, that one of the things that San Antonio must do to succeed economically to compete in our global economy is to raise the profile of this city. You go out throughout the nation, much less the world, and you ask folks about San Antonio. Sometimes they know the Alamo and the Riverwalk, especially, but they often think that San Antonio is a small town. In fact, many folks think that Austin is bigger than we are. Even though we're twice as big. We have set about in my office to try and raise the profile of our city. The day that the 24th Air Force was to be inaugurated, we put out a press release touting San Antonio's cyber assets, and I got on the phone with a reporter and we were fortunate enough that the New York Times saw fit to declare that San Antonio is becoming a leader in cyber security.

On February 10th CNBC will broadcast from San Antonio and profile San Antonio's business success and the cities of Texas, and we will continue to invest in raising the profile of our successes to other communities throughout this nation and the world. I believe that we cannot even count over the years how many opportunities we've missed
because people don't know about all the riches of this city and its potential. And with your work and the great accomplishments that this business community and our general community have made, selling San Antonio is not hard at all, and it's a pleasure to do that.

State of the City Address...Page 4